


I'll keep you my dirty little secret

by wemovealong



Category: Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Bullying, Coming Out, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-19
Packaged: 2017-12-17 11:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wemovealong/pseuds/wemovealong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two gays, two lesbians, and two fake relationships - what could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Everyone thinks that they know Liam Payne, the star player on the football team and one of the most popular guy’s at school.

He’s been dating a beautiful cheerleader named Jade for what seems like forever. 

He wears expensive clothes and is an overall great guy. 

The thing is though, is that that’s all they really know about him – that he plays football, has a girlfriend and looks fit. 

No one really knows the real Liam except for his three closest friends – Jade, Perrie, and Zayn. 

-&-

Liam’s life hadn’t been as easy as some people thought it had.

His father passed away when he was a kid, leaving his mother to raise Liam all by herself. 

They ended up having to move from their big house in an expensive neighborhood to a small flat in the city. 

His mother, Karen, had to work hard to support the two of them so she couldn’t be around as much as she wished she could be. 

Since Liam was only a kid, he couldn’t be left alone at home when his mother was out working, so she left him at their neighbor’s house when she had to work. 

Next door to them was a quirky little family. 

They were divorcees that had gotten remarried to each other and both of them had a kid from their previous marriages. 

Lucky enough for Liam, they had a son and a daughter who were both Liam’s age. 

Niall, the boy, had come from Ireland with his father. Sometimes Liam couldn’t understand what Niall was saying because of his strong accent, but he liked to play football just like Liam did so they got on well. 

Perrie, the girl, was a sweet English girl, but if you said that to her, she’d probably punch you. Perrie wanted to play with the boys, not the girls. Except for Jade. Jade was always Perrie’s exception. 

Jade was Perrie’s best friend and Liam had befriended her as well as the step-siblings because she was always over at Perrie and Niall’s place. Jade was the total opposite as Perrie. She was very girly and was into ballet and stuff like that but Perrie liked her anyway. 

Because of the move, Liam also had to switch schools, so he started school in the Fall with his three new friends. 

It was there at the new school that he met Zayn. 

Zayn was a new student that year as well, his family moving from Bradford. 

He was a quiet boy with dark hair and tanned skin. He had a batman lunch bag with him on the first day of school and Liam immediately wanted to befriend him. 

Lucky for Liam, they were beside each other in the alphabet and they were sat together in the teacher’s seating plan for the year. 

Liam would always try to strike up a conversation with him but it wasn’t easy as Zayn was extremely shy. Eventually Zayn started conversing back though when Liam would try to talk to him and he started hanging out with Liam’s group of friends. 

The five friends would hang out all the time. They would share secrets and have sleepovers and get into trouble. They were an odd bunch of kids since they were all quite different from each other, but Liam was so happy to have them as friends. 

-&-

Fast forward to a few years later and they are in juniors in high school and they’ve all still managed to remain good friends. They are all in the popular crowd and people are envious of them.

Liam, Niall, and Zayn were all on the football team at school. 

Zayn had never been into football until he met Liam, who taught him how to play and now he’s one of their best players. 

Perrie and Jade were on the cheerleading squad. 

Nobody understood how Jade managed to convince Perrie to join the cheerleading squad but somehow it happened. 

As for romance, four of them were in relationships and one was not. 

The one that wasn’t was Niall who wasn’t into anything serious. He just wanted to have fun and kiss lots of girls without any kind of commitment. 

And as for the other four, Liam and Jade paired up and so did Zayn and Perrie. 

But the thing was, was that it wasn’t really like that. 

Nobody knew this, not even Niall, but it wasn’t really Liam / Jade and Zayn / Perrie. 

Liam and Zayn were together and Perrie and Jade were together. 

-&-

When they hit the age of twelve, Niall and the other boys at school had started lusting after the girls, but Liam didn’t understand why. He didn’t think of girls in the way that they were describing them and only wanted to be friends with them and nothing more.

It wasn’t too long after that when he started to get those type of feelings that the other boys were talking about. Except his feelings were a bit different because they weren’t for girls. 

He realized by the age of thirteen that he fancied boys, especially Zayn. He kept all of these thoughts hidden though because the other boys apparently weren’t too keen on ‘lads liking lads’. 

Liam had started hearing words like ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ around the school and everyone seemed to use it in a derogatory way. He didn’t even know what those words meant until he decided to look it up online one day. It was at that moment that he realized that he was gay himself. 

It was awkward when the other kids at school would use those words after that because it made him feel insecure about himself. 

When they turned fourteen, there were two lads in their grade that decided to come out as a couple. Their names were Harry and Louis. 

They were both in the drama club and liked to sing and they loved each other. 

Nobody else seemed to be a fan of their relationship though because they got severely bullied for it every single day since coming out with it. 

Everyone would call them horrible names and there were even a few times where one or both would get beaten up. 

Liam felt horrible for them and wished that he could help them out somehow but he was too scared of everyone discovering his own sexuality. 

Liam vowed to never join in on the bullying of the two boys and Zayn never said a word about them either. Liam had heard Niall use some derogatory language towards Harry and Louis though and that hurt his feelings a lot and made him scared to come out. He didn’t want to lose his friends. 

-&-

One day, it was just Liam and Zayn hanging out together alone. They were sitting in Liam’s living room playing video games, some game where they were racing each other in cars.

“I saw Perrie and Jade kissing,” Zayn spoke up randomly. 

Zayn’s comment made Liam lose focus and crash his in-game car into a wall. 

“What?” Liam asked, pausing the game to face Zayn. 

“Yeah, it was a few days ago,” Zayn told him. “They didn’t see me but I saw them.” 

Liam was shocked. “Are you sure it was them?” 

“Yeah, positive,” Zayn nodded. He chuckled at Liam’s shocked facial expression. “You can’t say that you didn’t see this coming Liam. You know they’ve been into each other for years.” 

“No, I honestly never saw this coming,” Liam said. 

“I could always tell. It’s the way that they look at each other, you know. You can tell that they really fancy each other a lot,” Zayn explained and then smiled. “They look at each other kind of the way that you look at me.” 

Liam could feel his face redden and his heart beat faster. “I, um, don’t know what you’re talking about,” he mumbled, not giving Zayn any eye contact. 

“Yes you do,” Zayn laughed quietly and took Liam’s hand into his own, “and it’s okay, because I’m pretty sure that I look at you in the exact same way.” 

Liam looked down at their hands and then up to Zayn. He couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. 

“Please say something,” Zayn pleaded. 

Liam couldn’t say anything though. He was speechless; words would not come out of his mouth. 

So he decided to respond to Zayn by kissing him lightly on the lips. 

Zayn smiled when Liam pulled back from their short but sweet kiss. 

“I really like you, Liam,” Zayn said, running his fingers on his free hand nervously through his hair. 

“I really like you too,” Liam admitted. 

“Could I kiss you again?” Zayn asked and Liam nodded. Their second kiss was a bit longer and less light than the first. 

“So what do we do now?” Liam asked nervously when they pulled back. 

“Kiss again,” Zayn smirked, pulling Liam into another kiss. 

-&-

After that day, they started a relationship. It was a secret relationship, of course, because they were scared of what the other kids at school might think and Zayn was pretty sure that his father might kill him if he ever found out.

But otherwise, they were happy together. 

They would do what they could out in public, like they went to see a lot of movies because they could hold hands in the dark and nobody would notice, but they spent a lot of time up in Liam’s bedroom. 

It was great because Liam’s mother worked a lot so they had the place to themselves a lot of the time. 

They made a mistake though a few months into their relationship. 

They were hanging out with Perrie, Jade, and Niall one day when Niall pointed out a mark on Liam’s neck that Liam had forgot was even there. 

“Is that a hickey?” Niall questioned him. He moved towards Liam to examine his neck. “Holy shit, it totally is,” he determined. “Does our Liam have a girlfriend?” he asked with a fake gasp. 

“Uh,” Liam started, beginning to panic. He had no idea how he was going to get himself out of this one because he knew that Niall wasn’t going to drop the subject until Liam told him every detail of it. 

“I gave it to him,” Jade spoke up. Everyone looked towards her, confused. 

“Oh, cool,” Niall said, shutting up because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to talk to Liam about it right there in front of Jade, but he not-so-subtly gave Liam a wink before changing the subject to something else. 

Everyone else remained quiet and just let Niall ramble on about whatever. They all seemed to be stuck on why Jade would lie for Liam. 

Eventually, Niall excused himself to go to the bathroom, and as soon as he left and was out of earshot, a new conversation began. 

“What the fuck?” Perrie hissed at Jade. 

“Yeah, what the fuck?” Liam repeated. 

“Oh shut up, Liam,” Jade said, rolling her eyes, and ignoring Perrie for the moment. “I know that the two of you,” she motioned to Liam and Zayn, “are together. I was just helping you out.” 

Liam and Zayn both went completely red in the face. 

“What?!” Perrie gasped. 

“I saw them together,” Jade told Perrie with a smile. 

“Yeah, well I saw the two of you together as well,” Zayn added. “Saw you ladies kissing a few months ago.” 

“Oh god,” Perrie said, putting her hands in front of her face. 

“But you’re actually together then?” Jade asked. “Like boyfriends?” 

“Yeah,” Liam sighed. There was no point in hiding it from them now. 

Zayn smiled at him and put his hand over top of Liam’s. 

“Oh my god, you two are so cute,” Perrie exclaimed. 

They both smiled. “What about you ladies?” Zayn asked. “Are you girlfriends?” 

“Duh,” Jade said and Perrie laughed. “You can’t tell anyone though because my parents will kill me,” Jade said more seriously. 

“Oh same here,” Zayn agreed. “Your secret is safe with us.” 

“What are we gonna do about Niall guys?” Liam asked. “He probably thinks that me and Jade are shagging now.” 

Jade laughed. “You could be my fake boyfriend,” she joked. 

“Oh my god, that’s a great idea,” Perrie exclaimed. 

“It is?” Jade asked, scrunching up her face in confusion. “I was kidding, Per.” 

“No, it’d be perfect,” Perrie explained. “Like you know how your parents are always on you about how you never have a boyfriend and how they think that I’m trying to turn you against men and whatnot, so like what if you brought Liam home. They’d stop questioning us, yeah?” 

“It’d also look good at school too,” Zayn added, turning to Liam. “I mean, we’ve seen how the other lads treat Harry and Louis, right?” 

“True,” Liam said slowly. “But if we’re gonna do this, then you two,” he motioned to Zayn and Perrie, “have to fake date as well.” 

“Yes! We can go on double dates!” Jade squealed. 

“It’s totally perfect!” Perrie said excitedly. 

It was then that they had to shut up because they could hear Niall coming back down the stairs. 

“What did I miss?” he asked. 

“Nothing,” Liam told him, hoping that he’d take that as an answer. 

“Alright,” Niall shrugged and then moved on to ask who wanted to play video games. 

Everyone smiled at each other while Niall turned to turn on the game console. 

_This could really work out_ , Liam thought to himself. 

-&-

And it really did work out.

Shortly after they agreed to dating, Liam and Jade made their ‘relationship’ public. 

And not too long after that, Zayn and Perrie began ‘dating’ as well. 

They were all worried about people buying it or not, but everyone did. 

And even better, both Jade and Zayn got their parents off their back about the issue of love and romance by bringing Liam and Perrie home. 

They kept it a secret amongst the four of them, and not even Niall knew. He didn’t even suspect anything either, and Liam figured that he must have terrible gaydar or was blind or something. 

Both ‘couples’ would appear to go on double dates every Friday and everyone thought that it was _so cute_ and _so fifties_ of them. 

They would go to their usual restaurant for dinner, and while it looked like the ‘couples’ were sitting across from their ‘lover’, staring into each other’s eyes, it was really that they would be sitting beside their actual lover, holding hands under the table. 

At school, they were the ‘it couples’. Everyone wanted to have a relationship like Liam and Jade’s or like Zayn and Perrie’s. 

They would all hang out and laugh about how ridiculous everyone was, but they didn’t mind because they all knew that it was way better to stay hidden for now. 

And everything was perfect, until it wasn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope this is okay, lol  
> i love au fan fiction and i really wanted to write one


	2. Chapter 2

Everything had been going great for the two couples, both real and fake.

Their real relationships were not at all affected by their fake relationships. 

The only thing that changed was that they had to hold hands at school and invite their fake significant other over for dinner once in a while. 

It worked out in everyone’s favor really, especially for Zayn and Jade, who both came from strict families who would totally be against the idea of their child dating someone of the same sex. 

And as for the fake relationships, everyone around them was still totally fooled, even months later. Everyone still thought that the fake couples were actually real. 

It didn’t stop some people – or one girl in particular – from questioning it though. 

Eleanor Calder, head cheerleader and one of the most popular girls at school, was not a fan of the two couples. 

Since the couples were friends with the popular crowd, with being football players and cheerleaders and all, they sat with them during their lunch hour. 

Once they the fake couples came out as real couples to the group, Eleanor was immediately trying to stick her nose into their business. Liam could tell that she was the only one who wasn’t buying into their scheme and that worried him. 

Anytime Liam and Jade would pass Eleanor in the hall, he could see her looking them up and down and the smirking at them as if she knew that they weren’t really together. 

And both Jade and Perrie had complained on many occasions that Eleanor was trying to get them to give her the details on their ‘sex life’ with the boys. 

Liam was sure her hate for them had started when Liam had rejected her best friend Danielle. 

It was about a month before he had made things ‘official’ with Jade that Danielle had asked Liam out on a date. 

Danielle was a super nice girl and very pretty, but Liam was not into her at all and he was dating Zayn, so he politely told her that he was not interested. 

He assumed that Danielle must have went crying to Eleanor because Eleanor wasn’t taking no for answer from Liam. 

“Why did you say no to Danielle?” she had asked him a few days after Danielle had asked him out. 

“Um, I don’t know, I guess I’m just not interested in her like that,” Liam had told her. 

“But why?” Eleanor kept going. “I mean, she’s super smart and super hot, like she’s a total catch.” 

“Then why don’t you date her?” Liam had laughed. It was a joke but Eleanor must not of thought that it was too funny because suddenly she looked very angry. 

“I’m not some kind of lesbo,” she had growled at him, “but I’m starting to think that maybe _you’re_ a fag.” Then she stormed away. 

No one had ever called Liam that word before so he had been scared of Eleanor ever since because he was worried that she was catching on and that she would tell his secret to the whole world. 

-&-

Liam only had one class of the day where he wasn’t with one of his four best friends, and unfortunately for him, Eleanor and Danielle had decided to sit right in front of him at the beginning of the year.

The two girls would harass every few days about things like his sexuality and his relationship with Jade, and today was another one of those days. 

“So I just don’t get it, Liam,” Eleanor said as she whipped around in her seat after the teacher was finished with his lesson. 

Liam sighed. “It was a pretty straight forward lesson, El. If you didn’t get it, then ask the teacher,” he told her. He knew that she wasn’t talking about the lesson, and rather his personal life, but he always tried to at least avoid the topic with her. 

“Shut up, you twat,” she hissed at him. “I mean, I don’t get what you see in Jade.” 

“Yeah, she’s obviously a fucking dyke,” Danielle laughed. 

Liam frowned. “That’s actually quite rude, you know, to call someone that,” he told him. 

“And it’s actually quite pathetic to pretend to be in a relationship with someone,” Eleanor snapped at him, “and P.S., I’m going to find out the truth one of these days.” 

Liam put his face in his hands. “For the millionth time, there is no truth,” he said. 

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” 

Liam and the others had heard the same threats over and over but she had never actually done anything. 

None of them had ever expected Eleanor to actually follow through with exposing the four of them. 

Perrie had even said that she was one of those girls that was all talk and no walk. 

But unfortunately for the four of them, they were wrong. 

And Eleanor was about to do something horrible to them and nothing was ever going to be the same afterwards. 

-&-

It was October and the boys were having a really big home game that evening.

Everyone went out to watch the football team play. It was _the thing to do_ in their town. 

Liam loved game days. He loved the game, the atmosphere, the crowd. 

He loved it all and he hoped to maybe even get a scholarship of some sort next year. 

But after what happened at this game in particular, he wants to quit and never play again. 

The thing was, was that nobody saw Eleanor and Danielle leave the field while the first half of the game was going on. 

And what no one knew was that they snuck off to the locker rooms in search of four particular items. 

Eleanor went for the girls, Danielle for the boys, and they found exactly what they wanted – four little mobiles that certainly didn’t belong to them by any means. 

And when they met back up and searched through the photo albums on said mobiles, they found exactly what they wanted. 

Back on the field, the first half of the game was going to an end. They were winning so far and everyone was ecstatic. The crowds were wild tonight, filled with students, staff, and families. 

When it was time for the half-time show that the cheerleaders always put on, things changed. 

Eleanor stopped the girls from getting into position and suddenly the big screen to the side of the field lit up. 

Everyone turned to watch as letters slowly popped up, one by one. 

The crowd shouted out whatever came up on the screen, thinking that it was some kind of pre-show to the half-time show. 

“E –X – P – O – S – E –D” the crowd spelled out. 

“WHAT DOES THAT SPELL? EXPOSED!” everyone read out from the screen. 

Liam had a really bad feeling about this and looked over to Zayn who looked like he was going to puke. 

Suddenly, the words were gone from the screen, and two pictures, side by side were put on the screen. 

One was of Perrie and Jade kissing and the other was of Zayn and Liam kissing. 

Everyone gasped all at once and then the crowd started talking. 

Everyone on the field, their teammates and the cheerleading squad, were either staring or laughing at the four of them. 

The pictures were only up for about twenty seconds before someone was able to shut off the screen, but the damage was already done. 

Everyone had seen the pictures and everyone knew who was in them. 

That everyone included Liam’s mother and Zayn, Jade, and Perrie’s parents. 

Liam had no idea what to do so he decided to run back to the locker room because anywhere was better than here and Zayn and the girls quickly followed him as well. 

“I am fucked,” Jade screamed when they got inside the school, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

“Uh, yeah, me too,” Zayn said, punching a locker that was close by. 

They parted ways to go into their separate locker rooms and then Liam and Zayn were all alone. 

“What the fuck am I going to do, Li?” Zayn said angrily, tears filling his eyes. 

“I don’t know,” Liam said quietly, wiping at his own tears. 

After they got changed into their street clothes, Liam grabbed Zayn’s hands. His knuckles on the hand that he used to hit the locker with were all red and cut up. 

“Whatever happens, we can make it through, yeah?” 

Zayn shook his head. “They saw the pictures. They’re going to kill me.” 

“So come over to mine then,” Liam suggested. 

“They’ll be waiting for me right outside those doors and you know it,” Zayn said sadly. 

“I love you, Zayn,” Liam said quietly and kissed him lightly on the side of the mouth. 

“I love you too,” Zayn said in almost a whisper. 

They left the locker room and walked to the front doors, where Zayn’s parents were waiting for him as Zayn thought that they would be. 

“If anything serious happens, come over to mine, okay?” Liam told him. 

Zayn nodded and then left the school to see his very angry parents. 

Liam watched him sadly get into the car and then they were off. 

Perrie came up beside him and wrapped her arms around his side. 

“The same thing just happened with Jade,” she said mumbled into his jumper. 

“This fucking sucks. Why did this have to happen?” 

“Because this town is full of small-minded fuckheads who can’t bear to see two girls or two guys together,” Perrie explained. “I mean look at those drama club boys, Harry and Louis. How many times have they come to class with a black eye or a bloodied something? It’s fucking ridiculous.” 

“Yeah, it is,” Liam sighed. “Are you going to be okay tonight, like with your parents?” 

“It’s not my parents that are going to angry, it’s Niall.” 

_Fuck_ , Liam thought. He forgot all about Niall. He was going to hate them after this. 

“Well, if you need to come over to mine, just knock because I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.” 

“Yeah, okay. Thanks, Liam.” 

Liam sighed. “Ready to go find our parents and get out of this shithole of a school?” 

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Perrie replied.


	3. Chapter 3

“We need to talk,” his mother told him as she opened the door after they drove home in silence.

Liam didn’t want to talk to her right now. He was sad and he was scared for Zayn and he didn’t know if his mother was going to yell at him or not. 

But he nodded anyway and they went to the living room and sat down on the couch. 

“So you and Zayn,” Karen said calmly with a small smile, “you’re in a relationship then?” 

“Yes,” Liam admitted quietly. 

“And so you and Jade...” 

“Are not together.” 

“Because she’s with Perrie.” 

“Yes." 

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. 

“You could have told me,” Karen finally said. “I wouldn’t have been angry with you. I love you no matter who you love.” 

“I know. I’m sorry,” Liam said as wiped the tears away that had been welling up in his eyes. 

“There is no need to apologize, sweetheart,” she told him, “and as for that bloody school of yours, we’re going to figure out who would do such a thing to such wonderful kids.” 

“I know who did it,” Liam snickered. “It was that – excuse my language – bitch of a head cheerleader, Eleanor Calder.” 

“Eleanor?” Karen asked. “But she was always such a sweet girl.” 

“Yeah, maybe when she was eight, but she’s been horrible to me and my friends for quite a while now.” 

“I had no idea. I’m so sorry, Liam,” Karen told him. 

“I probably should have told you, but it’s not like it was going to change anything, and it’s not like ratting out Eleanor will change anything either if we could even get her caught,” Liam explained. “School is going to be terrible on Monday,” he sighed. 

Karen was about to reply when they heard a knock at the door. 

-&-

Liam wasn’t sure if it was going to Zayn or Perrie but he ran as fast as he could to get there.

He was startled by what he saw when he opened the door. 

Zayn was standing there with a suitcase and he had dried up blood around his nose and mouth and on his shirt and he had a cut his lip looked like it was swelling up and it looked as if he was going to have a black eye in the morning. 

“Oh my god,” Liam said as he ushered Zayn inside. 

“They didn’t kill me, but it sure fucking feels like they did,” Zayn groaned. He was walking with a bit of a limp and Liam knew that his body was body was probably worse off than his face. 

“Zayn,” Karen said with a gasp when she saw him. 

“Um, do you mind if he stays here, mum?” Liam asked. 

“Of course not. You are more than welcomed to stay here, love,” she told Zayn. “You,” she motioned to Liam, “go get him cleaned up and I’ll go get some Tylenol and a cup of tea.” 

Liam nodded and took Zayn to the bathroom and sat him on the toilet. 

He cleaned up the blood that was only Zayn’s face and carefully cleaned the cuts on his face, trying not to hurt him too much. 

“Could you take off your shirt, babe?” Liam asked calmly. 

Zayn hesitated but slowly took it off anyway. 

“Jesus Christ,” Liam whispered to himself when he took a look at the many bruises on Zayn’s body. 

“He, um, like, kind of threw me to the ground, you know, and started kicking me,” Zayn told him. 

“I am so sorry, Zayn.” 

“It’s not your fault.” 

“It is,” Liam cried. “I mean, if we weren’t together than this wouldn’t have happened.” 

Zayn took Liam’s hand into his own. “I wasn’t going to be able to hide the fact that I’m gay for, like, ever though. I can’t help that I’m gay and that my family is super religious and shit, you know. I mean, it sucks, but what can I do, right?” 

Liam nodded. “I’m just glad that you’re okay. I honestly have no idea what I would do without you, Zayn.” 

Zayn smiled. “I love you,” he said. 

“I love you, too,” Liam replied, kissing Zayn lightly on his sore lips. 

-&-

Liam and Zayn basically spent the next day in Liam’s bed cuddling.

Zayn was too sore to do much else really and he just wanted Liam to comfort him so that’s what Liam did. 

They would only really get out of bed to get some food or to use the toilet. 

The next day, which was Sunday, they decided that they needed to check on Perrie and Jade. Neither of them were answering any of their texts so they had a feeling that something was terribly wrong. 

They decided to go see Perrie first since she was closer, being Liam’s neighbor and all. 

They knocked on the door and when it opened they were greeted by Niall. 

Niall didn’t say anything, just looked at the two of them and glared. 

“Um, hi mate,” Liam said shyly. He knew that things were going to be tough with Niall since they had all basically lied to him for the past few months. 

“What do you want,” Niall asked, “faggots?” he added a beat later. 

Liam winced at that. He knew that it’d be bad with him, but he didn’t think it’d be _that_ bad. 

Liam took a glance over to Zayn who was just staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact with Niall. 

“We just wanted to know if Perrie was okay,” Liam replied, ignoring Niall’s remark. 

“No, she is not okay, if you must know,” Niall snapped. “She’s been in her room crying for the past day over them taking Jade away.” 

“What?” Liam asked in confusion. “Who took Jade where?” 

“They’re sending her to some camp up north,” Niall explained, “for homos like you,” he added with a snicker. 

Liam ignored Niall’s comments again. “Could we see Perrie?” he asked. 

“No, you can’t. She’s not letting anyone into her room and I am sure as hell not letting either of you into my house.” 

“Let’s just go, Li,” Zayn finally piped up. “Sounds like someone’s turned into a fucking asshole overnight.” 

He grabbed Liam’s hand and dragged him away before Niall could say or do anything else. 

“I guess we’ve fucked up that friendship then,” Liam said sadly, once they got back to Liam’s, or rather their, bedroom. 

“It’s gonna be just like that tomorrow at school,” Zayn sighed, resting his head on Liam’s shoulder after they got back into bed. 

“I know,” Liam said quietly. “What are we going to do when we get there?” 

“I say we walk down the fucking hall holding hands,” Zayn smiled. “Let them know that we’re not ashamed to be in love and that their words can’t fucking hurt us.” 

Liam smiled. “Sounds like a plan,” he said, pressing his lips to Zayn’s forehead.


	4. Chapter 4

They had expected things to be bad at school on Monday, but in all reality, it was so much worse.

Liam and Zayn walked to school that morning, hand in hand, and continued holding hands as they walked into the school. 

Everyone that they passed in the hallway stopped to stare at them and then turned to whisper or laugh to their best friend about it. 

Lucky enough for them, they had their first period class together. Liam knew that it was going to worse once they had to split up and head to different classes. He knew that they, especially Zayn because he was a bit smaller, were going to get pushed around a lot. 

Liam wished that he could follow Zayn around all day to try and protect him, but he knew that he wasn’t going to able to do that, so he was just going to worry all morning about him until he gets to see him at lunch. 

So they walked into their first period class, which was English, together still holding hands. The class was already filled with students and everyone went dead silent as they walked in. 

“Faggots,” Tom Parker, a lad from the football team, said with a fake cough, and everyone started laughing. 

Liam and Zayn ignored him and sat down in their seats. Unfortunately, they were sat fairly close to Tom and his asshole friends so the whole class they heard little comments such as ‘I wonder which one takes it up the ass’. 

And the sad thing about their comments was that Liam and Zayn were good friends with those boys just a few days ago. 

Liam thought it was ridiculous how they were being treated just because they liked boys. It made him think of poor Harry and Louis, the school’s openly gay couple, and how they’ve been treated for the past few years. Liam wished that he would have stuck up for those boys before and made a promise to himself that he would the next time that he saw them getting bullied. He knew how it felt now and it was terrible. 

Liam and Zayn had to split to go to their second period class, and already on the way there, Liam got pushed into a locker by another former friend of his from the football team. 

_It’s going to be a long day_ , Liam thought to himself. 

-&-

After getting shoved against two more lockers and getting called a ‘faggot’ or a ‘homo’ at least fourteen more times, Liam was ready to see Zayn for lunch.

Zayn was waiting at Liam’s locker for him so that they could head to the cafeteria together. 

“Hey you,” Liam smiled when he saw his boyfriend. 

Zayn smiled back and kissed him on the cheek, while receiving an unwelcomed comment from some random kid telling them to ‘get a room’ with of course adding a ‘faggots’ onto the end his message. 

Liam shook his head as he got put some of his books into his locker. 

“So Perrie’s not here,” Zayn told him as Liam fiddled around with his lock. 

“No?” Liam asked sadly. 

Zayn shook his head. “Maybe we can try again to see her after school.” 

“Yeah, maybe if we get there before dickhead Niall does.” 

Zayn nodded and then the two of them were off to the caf, which they knew was just going to be plain hell. It was there right to eat there though, so ‘fuck everyone else’ they had decided that morning. 

They stood at the entrance of the cafeteria and it was as if everyone could sense it because have of the student body was staring at them, waiting to see where they would dare to sit. 

They knew that sitting at their usual table was out of the question because that’s where Eleanor, Tom, and all of their other formers friends sat. 

But they didn’t know where else they could even sit. Nobody would want them at their table. 

“Hey, you can sit here if you want,” they heard a close-by voice say to them. 

They both turned and saw a few of the drama club kids sitting together at a table close to the entrance. It was Harry that called out the invitation to them. 

Liam turned to Zayn, who just shrugged, and they made their way over to the table. The others who were sat with Harry and Louis moved over so that Liam and Zayn could sit down with them. 

“Thanks mate,” Liam said to Harry. 

“Not a problem,” Harry said with a smile. “We all know how it feels to be an outcast at this school,” he said and everyone at the table nodded. “I’m Harry by the way, just in case you didn’t know.” 

And then Harry introduced them to everyone at the table – Louis, Jesy, and Leigh-Anne. 

Of course, they knew of everyone that they were sitting with, but they didn’t really know them personally. 

They knew that Harry and Louis were both gay, had been dating since they were fourteen, and had gotten bullied about it every single day since. 

And they knew that Jesy got picked on all the time from the cheerleading squad for being slightly overweight. 

And they knew that everyone tried to cheat off Leigh-Anne in class because she was super smart and the guys made fun of her a lot, saying that she was a ‘prude’. 

But, again, they didn’t really know any of them personally, even though they had all gone to school together for years. 

Liam felt bad about that. They all seemed like such nice people and were the only ones in the whole school who were actually treating him and Zayn decently. 

“So are you two a couple?” Louis asked them after Harry was finished introducing everyone. 

“Lou,” Harry scolded him. 

“What? I’m just curious.” 

Liam laughed. “It’s alright, and yeah, we are” he said smiling at Zayn. 

“Cute couple,” Jesy told them. “Almost as cute as this one here,” she said motioning to Harry and Louis. 

“Oh, stop it,” Harry said, pretending to be embarrassed. 

“So where are your lady friends?” Louis asked. 

“Erm, long story,” Liam said, not really wanting to explain that one was being shipped away to some kind of gay-away camp and the other was depressed about the whole situation. 

“Well you can let them know that they’re both welcomed to sit here as well,” Harry smiled. 

“Will do,” Liam smiled back. 

“So we’re invited back?” Zayn asked. 

“Of course,” Harry responded. “Like I said before, we all know how it feels to be hurt and ridiculed and whatnot, so yeah, we’d love to have you here.” 

Liam wanted to cry tears of joy because of how amazing these people were. “Thank you so much,” he told Harry. 

“Listen, I know everything’s all happy and gay right now, but do you guys mind?” Leigh-Anne said to everyone from the end of the lunch table. “I’m trying to study over here because _some_ of us are actually _trying_ getting into university.” 

“And you try for all of us, Leigh,” Jesy joked as everyone laughed and quieted down just a bit. 

Liam had a feeling that he and Zayn – and Perrie and Jade when / if they came back to school – were going to fit right in with this new crowd. 

It had only been ten minutes and he already felt more belonging here than he did with sitting with the ‘popular crowd’ for two whole years. 

-&-

The rest of the day was shitty, as to be expected.

Liam had to spend a whole hour sitting behind Eleanor and Danielle as they talked bad about him and his friends deliberately loud enough for Liam to hear. 

He just knew that this was going to be a miserable school year but at least he had Zayn and some awesome new people to befriend. 

After school, he met up with Zayn again so that they could walk home together. 

They were going to see if they could get home before Niall so that they might have a chance of actually seeing Perrie. 

And lucky enough for them, they were able to get there first, and Perrie’s mother let them in right away. 

“I can’t promise you that she’ll want to see you,” she told them as she let them inside. “She barely wants to see us, you know? It’s been hard for her, with Jade’s family moving her away. But you can go knock on her door and see if she’ll talk to you.” She added a ‘good luck’ as she walked into a different room. 

The two of them stood in front of Perrie’s door and Liam knocked. 

“It’s Liam and Zayn,” Liam said to the closed door. 

There was no answer. 

“Perrrrrie,” Zayn called out to her in calm sing-song voice. 

“Fuck off,” she yelled and they heard some hit the door. 

“Come on, Per-bear,” Liam tried. 

“Just let us in,” Zayn added. “We miss you.” 

Liam was about to knock again when he could hear her shifting around in the room and then a moment later the door was opening. 

“What the fuck do you want?” she asked. 

Her hair was a mess and she looked tired and worn out. Liam knew that she had probably been crying since Friday night. 

“We wanted to see you,” Liam said. 

“To see how you were doing,” Zayn added. 

“Well I’m doing quite shit, thank you very much,” she said. She tried to shut the door on them but Liam held it open. 

“Perrie,” Liam said quietly. 

“Fine! Come in then! Fuck!” she yelled, releasing the door from her grip and heading back to her bed. 

They shut the door behind them and sat down at the end of Perrie’s messy bed. 

“So…” Liam started. 

And before he could say anything, Perrie let all of her emotions spill out. 

She started crying and telling the boys about everything that happened with Jade and how she misses her so much and that she doesn’t know what to do because Jade’s parents won’t tell her where they sent her and she doesn’t know if Jade’s okay or not or if Jade misses her. 

Liam and Zayn don’t say anything the whole time; just let her get it all out. 

They both moved from the end of the bed to lay on either side of Perrie, and when she was done speaking, the held her tightly as she cried. 

Liam knew that Perrie crying was a rare thing. Liam had only witnessed it once when they were nine years old. Niall had tripped her and she had scrapped her knee really badly, so naturally, she cried. But after she was finished crying, she got up and punched Niall in the face, and he ended up crying even more than her, so that was that. 

So letting herself cry and be held right now was a different side of Perrie that Liam had never seen before. 

Liam could just feel how much she really loved Jade and it made him tear up a little bit as well. 

She cried for what felt like forever and they held her through it all. 

Her sobs started to slow after a while. “Okay, you can let go now,” she said quietly and both boys laughed quietly because it was such a ‘Perrie’ thing to say. 

Liam tried to fix her messed up hair as Zayn wiped away her tears with his sleeve. 

“Thank you,” she said in almost a whisper. “I love you guys.” 

“We love you too,” both Liam and Zayn said at the exact same time. 

Perrie turned to Zayn and touched his bruised and cut-up cheek. “Your dad?” she asked and Zayn nodded. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t understand how someone’s own family could be so cruel about something that you can’t help, you know.” 

“How were your parents?” Liam asked. 

“Well, I told you before that I knew they probably wouldn’t care. Like they’re pretty cool, you know. It’s just Niall,” she sighed. “I’m not sure if he’s just, like, homophobic or if he’s just hurt that we all lied to him for so long. I mean, I can understand if it’s the latter, because I would be hurt too if I knew that my friends were keeping things from me.” 

Liam and Zayn nodded in agreement. Liam hoped that Niall would come around eventually. 

Liam’s mobile started ringing and it was his mother telling him that dinner was ready and for he and Zayn to come home. 

“We’ve got to get going, Per,” Liam told her, giving her a kiss on the cheek before getting off of her bed. 

“I hope you’ll come back to school soon,” Zayn said. “It’s horrible being in Mr. Cowell’s class without you,” he laughed. 

“Oh, and by the way, you’ve been invited to sit with the drama club kids during our lunch hour,” Liam informed Perrie. 

“Cool,” Perrie said. “Will you shut the door on your way out?” 

“Yeah, no problem,” Liam said. 

“And thank you guys, really,” she said quietly. 

“Of course,” they both said and smiled at her before they left her room. 

As they walked towards the front door, they could see Niall staring at them from the couch in their living room. 

Liam decided to give a weak smile. Niall didn’t say anything to them or give them anything more than a straight-faced look. 

Nothing was better than dirty looks and profanity so Liam hoped that it was progress.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day at school was more or less the same as the day before.

Both Liam and Zayn received many degrading comments about their sexuality, got pushed into a few more lockers, and tried their best to ignore the neanderthals that were their classmates. 

The only good part of the day was when it was lunch time. 

It was only their second day of sitting with the drama club kids but they already felt so at home there with them. 

All four of them were very interesting people Liam found out new things about each of them like he learned that Harry works in a bakery and Louis has four little sisters and Jesy has a boyfriend who goes to another school across town and Leigh-Anne likes to dance in her spare time. 

And they were all just as curious about Liam and Zayn and what they liked to do outside of school and what their hobbies were and what kind of movies they liked to watch and stuff like that. 

It was so much different than sitting with the football team and the cheerleading squad. 

Sitting with the popular crowd was always either gossip or the boys talking about sex and the girls talking about calories. 

Liam had secretly always hated sitting over there. There was only so many times you could listen to Tom Parker talk degradingly about women and Eleanor Calder complain about how there were ‘too many calories’ in her ranch dressing. 

So in a way, it was a bit of a blessing that they were no longer welcomed at their table. 

-&-

Wednesday was a better day because Perrie finally came back to school.

Liam was happy to see her walk into his second period class that morning. It hadn’t been the same the past two days without her there to keep him company. 

Everyone just stared at her in confusion as she walked in to the room and sat down in the desk in front of Liam’s. 

She had dyed her blonde hair a bright purple colour and everyone in the room couldn’t help but stare at it. 

Perrie didn’t have to explain to Liam why she did it though because he already knew – purple was Jade’s favourite colour. 

“Cool hair,” Liam told her. 

“Thanks,” Perrie smiled. “I thought so too.” 

“ _Love_ the hair,” Danielle, who was also in this class with them, said as she passed Perrie and Liam to sit at the back of the class. “How very _alternative_ of you,” she said, laughing to herself as she settled down into her own seat. 

Perrie rolled her eyes and turned back around because today’s lesson was starting. 

Liam also realized throughout the class that Perrie was wearing one of Jade’s t-shirts that she must have left at Perrie’s house. 

Liam thought that it was sweet how she was sporting bits of Jade since Jade couldn’t physically be with her right now. 

He hoped that Jade’s parents would give up the ‘straighten-up Jade’ gimmick sooner rather than later. It was completely ridiculous. 

Liam couldn’t understand how people like her parents and Zayn’s family and the kids at school could be so narrow-minded. 

-&-

At lunch time, Liam met up with Zayn at his locker, as per usual. Perrie joined them there as well since her locker was just a few down from Liam’s.

They all walked down to the cafeteria together and joined the drama club table once again. 

Liam introduced everyone to Perrie, even though they all knew who she was. 

Everyone had started getting settled into a great conversation about what they had all done the night before when they had an uninvited visitor standing at the end of their table. 

“Dorks,” Eleanor nodded as way of greeting the table. 

Everyone just glared at her. 

“Can we fucking help you?” Perrie asked. 

“Yeah, it’s _you_ that I’ve been meaning to talk to,” Eleanor said in a fake sweet voice. “I just wanted to inform you that you’ve been let go from the cheerleading squad.” 

Perrie laughed. "Why? Because I’m a lesbian?” 

“No, of course not,” Eleanor said with a fake gasp. “You totally skipped practice on Monday and Tuesday and you know that we don’t see too kindly on our cheerleaders missing practices.” 

“Yeah, but it was totally cool last year when you missed like three practices because of that abortion you had, right?” Perrie laughed. 

The colour drained from Eleanor’s face. “That was a secret,” she hissed. 

“Yeah and so was my fucking sexuality and relationship with Jade,” Perrie said, standing up to face Eleanor, “but you didn’t seem to give two shits about that when you decided to take my personals photos from my mobile and exploit them to the entire student body and everyone’s parent.” 

“I – I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eleanor said. 

“Yes, you do, you little bitch,” Perrie growled at her, taking a step closer to Eleanor. 

“Get away from me, you dyke,” Eleanor said as she shoved Perrie away from her. 

And that was it for Perrie. 

Perrie slapped Eleanor hard across the face and then shoved her to the ground. She got on top her and got in a few punches as Eleanor tried to pull her hair before the teachers on lunch duty were there to pull the two apart. 

Mr. Grimshaw held Perrie, who was trying to get out of his grip, and Mr. Cowell held a bloody-nosed Eleanor. 

“Office, now! Everyone else get back to lunch.” Mr. Cowell yelled at the crowd that had gathered around and the two teachers lead them out of the cafeteria. 

After they were gone, everyone went back to their own tables to gossip about the fight that had just happened. 

“Holy shit,” Zayn said. Harry and Louis laughed. 

“That’s our girl,” Liam said proudly. He didn’t condone violence but it was about time that someone stood up to Eleanor. 

“Eleanor so deserved that,” Leigh-Anne said. The fight was the first time that Liam had seen her look up from her textbook in the three days that they had been sitting with them. 

“Yeah, she’s been picking on me since freshmen year when she told me that I was ‘too fat’ to be a cheerleader,” Jesy agreed. 

The rest of their lunch was spent talking about Perrie and everyone’s horror stories that involved Eleanor. 

-&-

Perrie must have been sent home after lunch because when Liam met up with Zayn after school, Zayn had said that Perrie wasn’t in class.

They decided to go and see her after school. 

When they got there and knocked on the door, Liam was worried to see that Niall had gotten home first. 

“Could we see your sister?” Liam asked, hoping that Niall would actually allow them in. 

“I guess,” Niall said, letting them in. “She’s in the living room.” 

“Thanks,” Liam said to Niall as he and Zayn walked in to the living room. Surprisingly, Niall actually followed them in there. 

Perrie had a wide smile on her face when she saw Liam and Zayn walk into the room. 

“How fucking awesome was I?” she asked. 

“Really fucking awesome,” both Liam and Zayn said at the same time as they sat down on the couch that Perrie was sitting on. Niall sat down in the arm chair that was off to the side. 

“I’m suspended until Monday but Eleanor’s suspended until Wednesday since she pushed me first,” Perrie laughed. 

Perrie started reenacting the whole fight as Liam and Zayn laughed. 

“I wish I could’ve seen it,” Niall said quietly. Everyone turned to look at Niall. Liam had almost forgotten that Niall had even been sitting there because he hadn’t said a word the whole time. 

Perrie gave him a smile and bent herself over the armrest on the couch to pat Niall on the leg. “Maybe next time, little brother,” she told him. 

“Oh god, next time?” Liam laughed. 

“Hey, I’ve got a whole squad of cheerleaders that I’d love to beat the shit out of,” she said seriously. “They treated me and Jade like shit while we were on that squad, like they wouldn’t invite us to their sleepovers and shit because they ‘thought that we were lesbians’,” she laughed. “Like we were, obviously, but what the fuck does that matter anyway? What did they think we were going to do, try and convert them or start, like, touching each other in the middle of a pillow fight? Like bloody hell.” 

“That’s just ridiculous,” Zayn said, shaking his head. 

“Hey, at least you don’t have to hang out with them anymore, right? And we’re not going to have to deal with the dicks in the locker room,” Liam said. 

“You both quit?” Niall asked with a sad look on his face. 

Both boys nodded. Liam explained how they had quit on Monday after the big exploitation from Friday’s game. They didn’t want to have to deal with the other boys harassing them in the locker room about how they shouldn’t be in there because they were gay or how they were scared that one of them would try to ‘sneak a peek’. 

Liam’s mother was a bit angry with him, since Liam could have had a chance at a scholarship, but Liam said that it wasn’t worth the hell that he would be sure to encounter, and she reluctantly agreed with him. 

“That sucks,” Niall said. “You guys loved football.” 

“Yeah, but it’s not the kind of environment we want to be in though, you know?” Liam said. “It’s bad enough that everyone treats us like shit in class when the teachers are around. I don’t even want to imagine what it’d be like when we’re trapped in a small room with no adult supervision.” 

“Yeah, and I definitely don’t need any more bodily harm done to me,” Zayn grimaced. His body was still sore and broken-looking and taking forever to heal and repair itself despite Liam’s best efforts at nursing him back to health. 

Niall nodded and stay silent for a moment. 

“I miss you all,” he admitted after a while. “I’ve been such a dick lately.” 

“You have,” Liam said and Zayn and Perrie nodded in agreement. 

“I’m sorry,” Niall said sincerely. “I’ve been horrible to you lot and the things I’ve said, like, I didn’t really mean them, I was just really hurt that everyone was lying to me and that no one felt that they could trust me enough to tell me that they were fucking gay, and I know that it’s no reason to say such hurtful things and I know I reacted badly, and I am so sorry for that.” 

Everyone remained quiet until Niall was finished with his apology. 

“We should have told you,” Perrie agreed. “We shouldn’t have kept you out of the loop so I’m sorry for that.” Liam and Zayn nodded in agreement. 

Perrie’s mobile started ringing then and it was her mother who had just found out that she had been suspended from school so Perrie took the call into another room, leaving Liam and Zayn with Niall. “So do you still think that we’re ‘faggots’ or ‘homos’?” Liam asked. 

“Oh my god, no,” Niall said putting his face in his hands, embarrassed at what he had said before. “I love you, lads. I don’t care that you’re fucking each other. You’re still my best mates.” 

Liam smiled. “Well, thanks.” 

“And also at the lunch table, whenever anyone would say anything about any of you, I would tell them off because that’s my sister and my best mates that they’re going on about, you know,” Niall told them. 

“That must have gone over well with the other lads,” Zayn laughed to himself. 

“It didn’t,” Niall admitted. “They called me a ‘faggot’ as well but I didn’t really care because if caring for my friends makes me a ‘faggot’, then hey, I’m a fucking ‘faggot’.” 

“Oh Nialler,” Liam laughed. 

“So can we be good now?” Niall asked. 

“Jut as long as you’ll stop being a prick.” 

Niall nodded fast. “Of course, of course,” he said. 

“Okay then, good,” Liam said. 

Niall breathed out a sigh of relief. 

“So what’s it like to have a dick up your ass?” Niall asked. 

“Niall,” Liam groaned. 

“What?” Niall asked innocently. 

Liam and Zayn both laughed. 

Niall was back to his normal self, that was for sure.


	6. Chapter 6

Liam and Zayn spent another two hours catching up with Niall – even though it had only been about five days where the three hadn’t spoken.

They had really missed Niall, though, and Niall had seemed to miss them even more. 

“I’m coming to sit with you lads at lunch, okay?” Niall told them. 

“Are you sure?” Zayn questioned him. 

“Yeah, I mean, we’d love for you to, but you do know who we’re hanging out with now, right?” Liam pressed. 

“Yeah, you’re hanging out with Harry and Louis and those two girls, Jesy… and, uh, the smart one. I can’t remember her name.” 

“And you’d want to hang out with all of us?” Liam asked. 

Niall nodded. “I’d rather hang out with you lot than sit with people who just make fun of my best mates.” 

Liam and Zayn both smiled. “Then we’d love for you to join us,” Liam said. 

“Cool,” Niall said and the paused to think. “Leigh-Anne, that’s it, the other girl.” 

“Yeah,” Liam chuckled. 

“She’s cute,” Niall winked. 

“Oh god,” Zayn rolled his eyes. 

“And you are going to stay far away from her,” Liam laughed. 

Niall started to protest but Perrie finally came back into the room. Shortly after her mother had call her, her mother had come home from work and had pulled Perrie upstairs so that they could talk about things. 

She had an unreadable expression on her face so Liam couldn’t tell if their talk had gone alright or not. 

“So what’d mum say?” Niall asked as Perrie took her seat on the couch again. 

“She was quite proud of me,” Perrie said, her lips turning upwards into a big smile. “Proud that I stood up for myself and showed that bitch that she can’t treat like shit and get away with it anymore.” 

“That’s awesome,” Zayn said as they all laughed. 

“What are you two still doing here?” Perrie asked as their laughter died down. “You’ve got a date to get ready for, so get lost,” she said with a smile as she tried to push Liam off the couch. 

“A date?” Niall asked mischievously, wriggling his eyebrows up and down. 

“A double date, actually,” Liam informed him. “Harry and Louis asked us to go out with them tonight.” 

“Yep, so go home and get yourselves prettied up,” Perrie smiled. 

Liam got off the couch and offered a hand to Zayn, who took it as Liam pulled him up to his feet. 

“And you’re sure that it’s okay, Per?” Liam asked before he and Zayn left. They used to the whole ‘double dating’ thing all the time with Perrie and Jade when they were still fake-dating and Liam was worried that he and Zayn doing that with Harry and Louis might upset Perrie. 

“Yes, yes, yes,” Perrie assured them as she waved them away, “and besides, mum is taking us out to Nandos when dad gets home because she was just that proud of me today.” 

“Really?” Niall squealed. 

Liam and Zayn laughed and left the two siblings to their excitement. 

-&-

Liam’s mother was working a late shift tonight so when Liam and Zayn went back to theirs, they had the whole place to their selves.

So after a bit of fooling around – or well, a lot of fooling around because they had lots of time – and then a nice, long shower – which they took together because Karen wasn’t there to catch them or anything – they were finally ready to go out with Harry and Louis. 

When Louis had found out that neither Liam nor Zayn had a car or could even drive, he had offered to pick both boys up so that they could head over to the mall where they were all going to hang out. 

Louis was there, with Harry in the passenger seat, to pick them up at exactly 6:00 p.m. sharp. 

Liam and Ziam squeezed themselves into the back seat of Louis’ beat-up old car as the other boys greeted them. 

“Hey lads,” Liam said as he got settled in his seat. 

“Thanks for driving us, by the way,” Zayn said with a polite smile as Louis started to put the car into drive. 

“It’s not a problem at all. I just hope you don’t mind that my car’s a piece of shit,” Louis laughed. 

“It’s not that bad,” Zayn chuckled, “and it’s good as long as it gets you from point A to point B, right?” 

As Louis and Zayn talked about cars and driving, Liam couldn’t help but notice that The Fray was playing on Louis’ radio. Harry was humming to ‘Look After You’ as he listened to the other boys’ conversation. 

“You guys like The Fray?” Liam concluded after he noticed some of their CDs on the floor in the backseat of the car. 

“No, we _love_ The Fray,” Louis corrected him. 

“And The Script too,” Harry added, “oh, and The Vaccines.” 

“That’s awesome,” Liam told them. Those were some of his favourite bands too. 

“Yeah, it’s always funny at school because people will say to us all the time about how we must _love_ , like, Britney Spears and Beyonce and other popstars like that, just because we’re gay,” Louis laughed. 

“And they’ll say this to us while I’m wearing, like, a Rolling Stones shirt,” Harry added, laughing as well. 

“People and their stereotypes,” Louis said, shaking his head. “Just because you’re gay, doesn’t mean you can’t like rock n’ roll or football or other laddy things.” 

“That’s true,” Liam agreed. He did like lots of ‘guy-ish’ things even though he liked guys. 

“And it even works the other way around, you know, like lads can like girly things too, but it doesn’t have to mean they’re gay,” Harry explained. 

Zayn nodded. “Niall mentioned one time at football practice that he liked Justin Bieber’s music and Tom Parker called him a faggot and nearly beat the shit out of him,” he told them. 

“Ridiculous,” Louis said, shaking his head as he pulled into a parking spot at the mall. 

-&-

As they walked through the mall towards the foot court, Harry and Louis held hands.

Liam had seen them at the mall and in other public places before they had become friends and the two of them were never afraid to show everyone that they were in love. Liam loved how they didn’t seem to have a care in the world what anyone thought of them. 

Liam was nervous about making his and Zayn’s relationship public to more than just their school but he didn’t resist when Zayn took his hand as they walked as well. 

“Is this okay?” Zayn whispered to him. “I can let go if you’re not comfortable.” 

“No, we’re good,” Liam smiled. His heart was racing and he was hoping that his face wasn’t _too_ red. 

He could tell that other people were giving the two couples strange looks but it was such a thrill to be holding Zayn’s in such a public place that soon Liam forgot that the other mall-goers were even there. 

Harry and Louis both gave them encouraging smiles and a thumbs up each when they noticed the boys holding hands. 

When they finally got to the food court, Louis ordered Harry and Zayn to go and find a table while he and Liam went and bought the food. 

Liam watched as his and Louis’ boyfriends walked across the food court to find a table that was vacant and far away from everyone else as he and Louis stood in line at one of the food court restaurants. 

“You love him so much,” Louis noted as he turned to watch Liam watching Zayn. 

Liam turned with a red face to look at Louis. “Yeah, I do,” he said shyly. 

“And you’re blushing,” Louis awed at him. “So cute!” 

“Thanks,” Liam giggled. 

After they each ordered and paid for theirs and their boyfriends meals, they trekked across the food court to meet up with Harry and Zayn. 

“You couldn’t have picked a table a little closer?” Louis said to Harry with a fake pant. 

“Sorry, just wanted some privacy,” Harry laughed. 

They dove right in to conversation after they got settled and started eating. 

Both couples were very interested in learning about each other’s back stories with their sexualities and such. 

Liam learned that Louis’ father had stopped talking to him ever since his coming out but he wasn’t too sad about it because his father had always been a prick. 

And Zayn told them about his family and how being gay was totally wrong in their culture and religion and he told them about how his father had beat him after the football game when he found out that Zayn was gay. 

And they talked about the bullying from the other students at school and what it was like to get thrown in to lockers and to be called a fag every day. 

But they also talked about happier things, like how Harry and Louis’ friends had always been supportive and how Liam and Zayn had Perrie and Jade to relate to before as in-the-closet couples. 

“You guys should totally come to our GSA meeting tomorrow,” Harry said excitedly. 

“Your what?” Liam asked. 

“Gay straight alliance,” Louis told them. 

“We have one of those at school?” Zayn asked. Neither Liam nor Zayn had ever heard about it. 

Harry and Louis both nodded. 

“We do, but it’s more of like a secret club thing so that we don’t get harassed about it or anything, you know?” Harry explained. “So we don’t, like, advertise it or anything. We just invite those who we know could use some support.” 

Liam turned to Zayn, who nodded understandingly. 

“Yeah, sure, we’ll come,” Liam smiled. 

“Perfect,” Harry squealed. “It’s in room 321 and it’s every Thursday and Friday at lunch so instead of going to the cafeteria, you can just meet us up there.” 

The four boys talked for about another hour before they had to start heading back home. 

“So, tomorrow, room 321,” Liam confirmed with the boys before he and Zayn left Louis’ car when they got back home. 

“Yep,” Harry smiled. “We’ll see you there!” 

“Alright, yeah,” Zayn smiled back, “and thanks for a good time tonight lads.” 

“We’ll definitely have to do it again,” Louis said. 

“Definitely,” Liam said. 

Then they said their goodbyes to their new mates and headed back inside to the flat. 

“Tomorrow will be interesting,” Liam laughed to Zayn. 

“Yeah,” Zayn agreed and then looked around the flat to see no trace of Liam’s mother being there. “So your mum’s not back from work yet,” he told Liam with a wink. 

Liam looked around as well. “Looks like you’re right,” Liam said as he wrapped his arms around Zayn’s waist. 

“Bedroom?” Zayn asked with dark eyes. 

“Mmm,” Liam hummed as he pulled Zayn into their bedroom. 

_Everything is so good right now_ , Liam blissfully thought to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

Liam spent another morning of enduring hell from his classmates on Thursday but today he had other things to think about.

He was super nervous about going to the GSA club that Harry and Louis had invited him and Zayn to. He didn’t even know what they would do in the club – like what do they do for the hour, just talk about being gay? 

Liam also wondered how many people were even in the club. He only knew four other gay people at the school other than him and Zayn. There were Harry and Louis, who would obviously be there, and Perrie, who was suspended until Monday, and Jade, who was away right now. 

He thought about the club all morning and was jittery by the time he met up with Zayn at his locker. 

“Are you okay, babe?” Zayn asked him. “You look like you’re gonna have a heart attack.” 

“I’m just nervous is all,” Liam said. 

He couldn’t go to much more into because Niall showed up to greet them. 

“Hey lads,” he said. “So are we going down to the caf or what?” 

“Oh shit, yeah about that, Ni,” Liam started. “Harry and Louis invited us to their GSA club.” 

“Their what?” Niall asked, confused. 

“Gay straight alliance,” Zayn explained. “You can come with us.” 

“But I’m not gay,” he said with a frown. 

“It’s a gay _straight_ alliance club, Nialler,” Liam explained with a laugh. 

“Just come on,” Zayn laughed as he linked his arm with Niall’s and began to pull him away. Liam linked his arm with Niall on the other side and they made their way upstairs, ignoring the other students who made homophobic remarks towards them. 

-&-

“So this is it,” Liam said as they stopped in front of room 321.

“The history room?” Niall asked, scrunching up his nose. 

“Let’s go in,” Zayn said pushing past the other two to open the door. 

The three of them walked in to the room and shut the door behind them and were greeted by an enthusiastic Harry. 

“Yay, you guys came,” Harry squealed. 

Liam smiled. “I hope its okay that we brought Nialler here,” he said, standing behind Niall with his hands on his shoulders. 

“Hi,” Niall said shyly. 

“Of course, mate,” Harry said excitedly. “The more the merrier! Now come join us!” Harry said as he walked back over to where he had been sitting beside Louis. “Everyone make room for our new friends,” he said to the group. 

Liam, Zayn, and Niall followed and joined the fairly large group of teenagers. They had moved the desks around so that they could sit in a circle so that they could all see each other. Some were sitting on top of the desks and some opted to sitting in a chair. 

Liam noticed that the history teacher, Mr. Grimshaw, was also present in the room. He was sitting in his chair with his feet on the desk and was doing something with his iPhone. Liam figured that he was probably the supervisor of the club, because even though this was a secret club, every club had to have a teacher in charge. 

There had always been lots of rumors about Mr. Grimshaw being gay but Liam had no idea if they were true. Either way it was nice of him to let the students have a place where they could just hang out and be themselves. 

When they found a place to sit, everyone smiled and greeted them. 

Leigh-Anne and Jesy waved to them from across the circle and Liam smiled and waved back. 

Niall must have winked at Leigh-Anne or something because she turned away quickly with a nervous laugh. 

As for the rest of the group, Liam knew a few of them but there were some that he didn’t know because they were in a different year than him. 

“Alright so as our newest members why don’t you lads tell us a bit about yourselves, like what brings you here today,” Louis said to them, getting things started. 

Liam started off. 

He told the group that had known that he was gay since he was about thirteen years old and that was also when he started fancying Zayn. Everyone in the room awed at that and Liam blushed. 

He told everyone how he had been insecure about his sexuality since a lot of his friends seemed to be against that kind of thing. He told them how he had planned on hiding it for a long time until Zayn had confronted him about it. 

He told them how he and Zayn were fifteen when they started dating in secret and that Zayn was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He told them how he was sad though that they couldn’t be like other couples and just holds hands without being criticized. 

He told them briefly about Perrie and Jade and how they made a deal about being fake couples. He didn’t go too much into the Perrie and Jade thing because he didn’t want to give too much of their story away for when Perrie was back to tell it herself. 

And lastly, he told them that this week had been horrible and wonderful at the same time. It had been horrible in the sense that he was humiliated and he had lost a really good friend and the people that he thought were his friends had turned against them and that the people closest to him had been hurt. But it had also been wonderful in the sense that he and Zayn no longer had to hide and that his mother was okay with his sexuality and that he and Zayn got to sleep in the same bed and that he’s gotten to meet lots of new friends. 

Zayn was next. 

He explained his own realization about his sexuality. He said that he was twelve when he started to see Liam as more than just a friend and started to notice how fit he was. That was also around the time that everyone started using homophobic slurs in their everyday language. 

He said that he remembers going home and asking his parents at dinner what ‘gay’ meant and he nearly got hit just for asking about it. They said that he it was forbidden and wrong and that men are supposed to be with women. They also told him that if any of their kids were to come home with a partner of the same sex, that they would kill them. 

He had been scared after that and tried to stop having feelings about Liam and thoughts of being with men. 

He said that he tried dating a girl when he was thirteen. Her name was Cher and she was really pretty but he didn’t like holding hands with her and he would turn his head when she was tried to kiss him. He said that he realized that being with girls just wasn’t going to work when he really just wanted to be with lads. 

He then told them a bit about when he and Liam got together and the stuff with Perrie and Jade and about how scared he was when those pictures showed up on the screen of him and Liam at the football game. 

He told them about what happened afterwards with his dad. It was a hard story to tell and Liam held his hand the whole time he spoke. Harry and the girls had tears in their eyes. 

Niall spoke after Zayn. 

He told them that he had used homophobic remarks in the past that he felt terrible about it. He promised everyone that it would never happen again because he realized how hurtful those terms are this week. 

He said that he never knew that any of his mates or that his sister we’re gay. He said that he was sad that no one had told him but then he thought about it and realized that they weren’t really entitled to tell him and that they probably would’ve told him eventually. 

He said that wants to be become more accepting and supportive and Louis told him that he was in the right place and that he could be a straight ally. 

“Alright, thank you lads for sharing your stories,” Louis said with a kind smile. “So who’s next?” he asked the rest of the group. 

Two girls raised their hands. 

Liam only knew one of the girls. Her name was Cara, she was in their year, and Liam knew that the cheerleading squad had hated her because she was a part-time model or something and they didn’t get it because her eyebrows were – and this was a direct quote from Eleanor Calder – ‘so goddamn bushy’. 

The other girl introduced herself as Rita. The only thing that Liam knew about her was that she a year ahead of them. 

They told them that they were a couple and had been for almost eight months now. They both said that they make each other really happy and it was the best relationship that either girl had ever been in before. 

Cara explained that she hadn’t really ever liked boys too much. She didn’t mind kissing them or anything and she thought that many boys were attractive but it didn’t really ‘do’ anything for her. She said that it wasn’t until she had met Rita that she realized that she might be a lot more into girls than guys. 

She said that she doesn’t really like to label herself but she supposed that she could probably be considered a lesbian because she doesn’t think that she’ll ever have that certain kind of connection with a lad. 

Rita told them she just likes people. She said that she falls for the person and not their genitals. She said that she’s been with both sexes and that she likes either gender and that it all depends on the person. 

She said that her parents don’t get it and they think that she needs to ‘choose a side’ but she said that she doesn’t think it matters. 

“If I end up with a lad in the end, then that’s okay, and if I end up with a girl in the end, then that’s okay too, you know,” she said and everyone nodded. 

Next up was another senior who Liam found out was called Jaymi. 

He told that he and basically everyone that knew him had always kind of always just known that he was gay so his parents weren’t surprised at all when he told them a few years ago. 

Much like Liam’s mum, his parents were completely supportive and had no issues whatsoever with his sexuality. 

He told them about how he has been dating a lad that was a year older than him and already in university. He said that they’ve been together for just over a year and the lad is his first boyfriend ever. He said that he completely in love with him. 

After Jaymi was the last member of the group, a younger lad named George. Liam laughed to himself because he thought that George looked like the love child of Harry and Louis. 

He said that he had just turned fourteen a few months ago and that he was a freshman. He said that, like Jaymi, he always just kind of had a feeling that he was gay. 

He said that he hasn’t told his parents yet but he was going to sometime soon. He said that being in GSA club has helped him a lot and that everyone has given him great tips on how he could come out. 

He said that he doesn’t have a boyfriend and hasn’t even kissed anyone before but he wants a relationship like those who are taken in the room. He wants something cute and long-term and full of love. 

Liam can’t help but be in awe with the kid. He wished that he had been that confident and open at fourteen years old. 

-&-

After everyone shared their stories and praised and commented on each other’s stories, they all just sat around for the rest of the hour, just eating and talking.

Liam loved being in this club already. It was basically just a place where they could be themselves and he loved it. He was able to just sit there and rest his head on Zayn’s shoulder and not one person said anything other than ‘aw’. 

“So how do you even manage to keep this club a secret from everyone else?” Liam asked out of curiosity. 

“Oh, it’s simple. Nobody comes all the way up to the third floor unless they have to and history class is super boring so no one wants to come in here anyway,” Harry explained and then turned to Mr. Grimshaw. “No offense, Nick,” he laughed. 

Liam turned to see Mr. Grimshaw give Harry the finger. 

“You’re on a first name basis?” Liam laughed. 

“Those two have been in this room every Thursday and Friday since they were freshmen,” Mr. Grimshaw, or Nick, laughed. 

“We have,” Harry said proudly. 

“Nick started this club back when he was in high school,” Jaymi informed them. 

“Yeah, so like a million years ago,” Louis snickered. 

“Shut it, Tommo,” Nick scowled at Louis. “But yes, I created the GSA for this school when I was went to school here,” he explained, “which was _actually_ only like _nine_ years ago, and it’s always just kind of stuck around so I was excited when I started working here and it was still going on.” 

“How is cool is that, huh?” Harry asked. 

“Very cool,” Zayn nodded. 

“Thank you,” Liam said quietly.


	8. Chapter 8

**Two Years Later**

_First day at university_

  
“Hurry up, you slow poke,” Liam laughed as he waited for his boyfriend at the top of the stairwell. Zayn was strong but not as strong as Liam so it took him a bit longer to carry the boxes he was holding up the stairs.

“I’m coming, Liam,” Zayn said, muttering with a few curse words under his breath as he finally reached the top of the stairwell. “We could have just taken the lift, you know.” 

“Yeah, we could have, but I love seeing you all hot and bothered,” Liam laughed, “and besides, you know it’s too busy anyway since it is move-in day and all.” 

Today was the day that the two of them were off to university and moving into their dorms. It was a day that they had been waiting for ever since they had been outed to the whole school. Neither of them could wait to move away from that dead-end town and move onto bigger and better things and at a place where they would more accepted. 

Through their two new best mates, Harry and Louis, they found a university that had a great reputation for being LGBT positive in London. 

So that was where Liam and Zayn, as well Harry, Louis, and Perrie, had applied to – Liam to major in Psychology and Zayn to major in Politics – and they were both so happy when they found out that they and their friends had all gotten in. 

Niall wasn’t going to be at the university with them as he had gotten that football scholarship that Liam had been hoping to get that was at for a different school but it was only about about a forty-five minute drive away so they would still be able to see him a lot. 

There had been lots of tears when they had to say goodbye – or rather, see you later – to Niall the night before. They were going to miss having Niall around at all times and Niall only had Leigh-Anne and Jesy going to the same university as him, which was great since he and Jesy had become really good friends since junior year and he had started dating Leigh-Anne during senior year, but Liam knew that he was still going to miss the rest of his mates. 

On a happier note though, there was one more person that would be joining them at their university and that was Miss Jade Thirlwall. 

Later in their junior year, Jade had finally managed to find a way to get in contact with Perrie again and the two would talk all the time in secret. It was great because until then Perrie had been depressed ever since Jade had been forced to leave her. 

After nearly two full years of spending time in northern England going to a gay-away camp and then living with an aunt that she had never even met before, Jade had finally turned eighteen and could legally be her own guardian. 

She knew where Perrie had intended on going to university so she applied and gotten in to the school as well. Jade didn’t tell her parents that Perrie was going to be going there, and especially never told them that the two were going to be roommates. She had decided that after all that they had done to her that she was going to cut off all ties with them. It was her life to live and not theirs and she wasn’t going to let them control who she can and cannot fall in love with. 

Today was the first day that the two girls had seen each other in nearly two years. Everyone had teared up a bit when they saw witnessed the beautiful reunion of Perrie and Jade. Even after two years of not being able to see each other, they were still very much in love. 

Perrie and Jade were also going to be living in the dorms but were going to be in a different building that was only for girls. Zayn and Liam were to live in the building next door that was, likewise, only for boys. 

So once both boys had reached the top of the stairs to the floor where their hall was, they stopped to take a quicker breather, for Zayn, and a kiss. 

“Hey, get a move on, lovebirds,” Louis joked as he and Harry came racing up the stairs with some pillows and bed sheets. 

“Oh, quiet you,” Liam chuckled with a reddening face. 

The four boys made their way down the hall together and stopped in front of two doors that were directly across from each other. One room was for Liam and Zayn and the other one was for Harry and Louis. 

They were super lucky to be living so close together and Liam couldn’t wait to spend the rest of the year with them all hanging out together. The four boys had grown especially close after becoming friends in early junior year. 

After lots of unpacking and even more ‘distractions’ from each other, Liam and Zayn almost had their room together. It had only taken them all day to get this far. 

Before they could finish though, they heard a knock at the door. Zayn went to open it and in piled Perrie, Jade, Harry, and Louis. 

“Hey lads,” Jade said sweetly. 

“You’re not fucking done yet?” Perrie asked about their unpacking. “It literally only took us,” she motioned to Jade, “like an hour or two and we have way more shit than you two.” 

“Well..” Liam started with a nervous laugh and the same guilty face that Zayn had. 

“Oh,” Perrie realized with a loud laugh and everyone else joined in. 

“Good on ya, mates,” Louis said slapping Liam on the back. Liam was sure that his face was cherry red right now. 

“So anyway,” Zayn said trying to change the subject, “can we help you wonderful people with something?” 

“Yes, you can,” Harry said cheerfully as he pulled out a bottle of champagne that he had been hiding behind his back. 

Perrie turned towards the cupboards and the kitchen and found some wine glasses. 

“I see the two of you sure had priorities of what to put away first,” she laughed as she set the glasses on the table. 

“Shush you,” Liam chucked. 

Harry finally managed to open the bottle and made a mess of the kitchen floor all well doing it. He poured the alcohol and everyone took a glass. 

“Okay, a toast,” Liam announced and everyone raised their glasses. 

“To new friends,” Harry said, directing the statement at Jade. 

“To new adventures,” Louis said. 

“To our sexy lovers,” Zayn chuckled and winked at Liam. 

“To everything queer,” Perrie said proudly. 

“To freedom,” Jade smiled. 

“To a fresh start,” Liam said last. 

Everyone clinked their glasses together and took a drink. 

Liam was so happy in this exact moment; to be standing there with his beautiful boyfriend and some of his best mates. 

And Liam knew that everyone else was so happy and free and in love too and that made him even happier. 

And that was it, the beginning of the rest of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this!  
> I hope that you enjoyed it!


End file.
